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Mr. Lonergan

Having grown up in Orange, Woodberry has always been a part of Mr. Lonergan’s life. Whether through visiting his friends, or seeing his son catch his first fish down by the lake, the Forest has always been important to Mr. Lonnergan. After Art School, he

Mr. Lonergan walks his students through an art museum

struggled to subsist solely on his art so he started teaching part time. During a stint working as a part time Art History teacher in a community college, a friend of his who was working part-time as a teacher at Woodberry approached Mr. Lonnergan about working at Woodberry. Without really intending to do so, he ended up working full time for Woodberry, eventually raising a family here.

For a man whose fate as a teacher at Woodberry was decided by a “very fortunate series of events,” Mr Lonnergan has very deep seated roots in the community. Not only does Mr. Lonergan have some very fond memories of the school, ranging from hanging out here with his friends to teaching his son how to ride a bike, he also has

Wylie Mendicino and Mr. Lonergan discuss modern art

a lot of respect for the history of the institution.

Music and a relaxed environment are conducive to a “fun” class where you can “let the juices flow” if you are taking Mr. Lonergan’s class. Undeterred by 20 years of experience as an Art teacher for Woodberry, he still enjoys being in the studio with his students and seeing them make some art. For the majority of this school, our only interaction with him is a trimester long class, “Intro to Visual Arts,” which most of us sadly treat as another check on the list of graduation requirements. Painfully aware of this, Mr. Lonergan has a noble goal for all of his Intro students: “I like to think that when they [the students] leave the class, they’ve been able to see that they are capable of doing art,”